"Anyway," he said at last, "maybe he didn't run in here after all."

"He did so, Laddie Bunker!" cried Violet. "I saw him."

This seemed final. Laddie looked all around again, quite puzzled as to
what to do next. There was no backing out of a thing when once it was
begun--not with Vi Bunker! She always insisted upon going on to the end,
no matter what that end might be.

"Well," her twin said at last, "I s'pose I'll have to go in after him."

"How can you?" asked Vi promptly, but excitedly, too.

"I can crawl into that hole----"

"Isn't it too small?"

"Well, I'm not so big," replied Laddie. "I guess I can do it. I'm going
to try."

He knelt down before the round mouth of the culvert. It was a piece of
drainpipe with a rough rim at the edge of the hole. Laddie poked his
head into the hole.

"It's as dark as the inside of your pocket, Vi Bunker," he said, in a
muffled voice.

"Shall I run get a candle?" asked his sister.

"No," sighed Laddie; and even his sigh sounded funny from inside the